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Start giftingThe Wild Girl
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Learn moreOne of six sisters, Dortchen Wild lives in the small German kingdom of Hesse-Cassel in the early nineteenth century. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the handsome but very poor fairy-tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm. It is a time of tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all Europe, and Hesse-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, Wilhelm and his brothers quietly rebel by preserving old, half-forgotten tales that had once been told by firesides of houses grand and small all over the land.
As Dortchen tells Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in what will one day become his and Jacob's famous fairy-tale collection, their love blossoms. But Dortchen's father will not give his consent for them to marry, and war, death, and poverty also conspire to keep the lovers apart. Yet Dortchen is determined to find a way.
Evocative and richly detailed, Kate Forsyth's The Wild Girl masterfully captures one young woman's enduring faith in love and the power of storytelling.
Kate Forsyth is an Australian writer and prizewinning author of more than thirty books, including novels for adults and children. She won five Aurealis Awards in a single year for her Chain of Charms series.
Kate Reading, named an AudioFile Golden Voice, has recorded hundreds of audiobooks across many genres, over a thirty–year plus career and won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. Among other awards, she has been recognized as an AudioFile Magazine Voice of the Century, Narrator of the Year, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and winner of an Publisher’s Weekly’s Listen-Up Award. She records at her home studio, Madison Productions, Inc., in Maryland.
Reviews
“The book is interspersed with familiar fairy tales that listeners will recognize and appreciate. Kate Reading is the perfect narrator for this saga, giving the heroine a sympathetic voice without making her seem weak…Strongly recommended for fans of historical fiction.”
“Forsyth tells the true story of Dortchen Wild, source of many of the most beloved fairy tales compiled by the famous Grimm brothers…a beautiful and often heartbreaking love story that is sure to move and captivate.”
“[A] richly imagined tale of the girl who gave the Grimm brothers some of their best stories…Ultimately, this novel inhabits the ground between Philippa Gregory and Hilary Mantel. It is both entertaining and serious-minded, but it has about it too that little touch of magic that makes Kate Forsyth’s voice so distinctive, so uniquely Kate. An absolute pleasure to read.”
“Against an intricately crafted tapestry of early nineteenth-century German daily life and tumultuous, tragic historical events, the story of star-crossed lovers Dortchen Wild and Wilhelm Grimm unfolds with a kind of dreamy, haunting precision.”
“In the bleak pages of history, Forsyth finds a story of enduring love and artistic integrity—her retelling is a fairy tale in itself.”
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